Engine failure cited in deadly Russian jet crash

PERM, Russia — A Russian passenger plane that caught fire as it fell from the sky on Sunday likely suffered engine failure before it crashed, killing all 88 people on board, investigators said.

The right engine of the Boeing 737-500 caught fire as the plane prepared to land in Perm, they said.

The plane came down on the outskirts of the city, hitting the ground just a few hundred yards from wooden houses and apartment buildings. Officials said no one on the ground was killed.

Flight 821, operated by an Aeroflot subsidiary, carried 82 passengers, including six children under 10, and six crew members, Aeroflot said.

Aeroflot officials said the plane was circling at about 3,600 feet in "difficult weather conditions" — including low cloud cover and rain — when it lost contact with ground dispatchers.

Witnesses said the plane was on fire as it fell.

"I felt an explosion, it threw me off the bed," a woman in Perm who was not identified told Vesti-24 television. "My neighbors, other witnesses told me that it was burning in the air."

It crashed around 3:15 a.m., about 750 miles east of Moscow.

The head of the investigative committee said examination of the site showed the crash "apparently was connected to technical failure and a fire in the right engine," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.